


Somewhere Along the Line

by unfolded73



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Implied Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 00:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11680431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: Snow and Killian talk





	Somewhere Along the Line

**Author's Note:**

> Idk, I felt like writing these two together. Set when Henry is 17. Spoilers for the 7x01 sneak peek, sort of, at least in terms of Henry’s plans. Also hey, remember during S6 filming when we saw a set photo with a black Trans Am in it, and it seemed like it would be the perfect car for Killian? I used that idea.

The black Trans Am caught Snow’s eye as it rolled past the playground, and she turned her head to watch it go, doing a double take at the familiar dark-haired man behind the wheel, the windows rolled all the way down.

“Killian!” she called out as the car stopped at the corner. He looked over, lifted his hook in a wave, and then turned the corner and pulled into a parking space next to the playground.

“Mommy, look!” Neal shouted, and Snow turned in time to see him slide down the toddler-sized slide.

“Good job, honey!” she called. Neal beamed at her approval, jumping to his feet and racing around the small jungle gym to the ladder on the other side.

“Well, fancy meeting you here,” Killian said as he approached. “You have that whole farm for Neal to run around on and you come into town for this?”

“Neal loves this little playground; he asks me or David to come here all the time, and I finally relented. But never mind that; Killian, what’s with the car?” She looked at it again, with its golden firebird decal on the hood. “I mean, David said he’d pretty much finished giving you driving lessons, but I didn’t know you’d already gotten a car.”

“That was a surprise from my lovely wife. She had the steering wheel modified with an attachment for my hook and everything.” He beamed with pride, rocking back on his heels and puffing his chest out a little bit.

“You know, I can’t say I’d necessarily imagined you with a nineteen-seventies muscle car, but it suits you,” she said.

“Hook!” Neal shouted. “Watch me slide!”

They both paused and watched as Neal slid the very short distance between the top of the plastic slide and the bottom. “Well done, lad!” Killian called before turning back to his mother-in-law. “What is it about it that suits me, Snow, is it its overwhelming manliness?” He hooked his thumb in his belt and raised an eyebrow, his hips swaying back and forth.

“Oh, shut up.” She patted the bench next to her. “Come sit with me for a bit… unless you have somewhere to be?”

He pointed to the deputy badge on his vest. “I’m on call at the moment, but I can certainly sit with you unless or until a call comes in.”

“You’ve gotten quite savvy with technology, having calls from the sheriff’s office forwarded to your cell phone,” Snow commented as Killian sat down next to her on the park bench.

He grimaced. “Emma did it for me, actually.”

They watched Neal run around, the boy entirely enthralled with the stairs, ladders, and bridges that made up the playground equipment. The sunny fall day was pleasantly cool, and Neal’s cheeks were ruddy with exertion and with the wind.

“Do you have one of those red bubble lights for your new car?” Snow said with a smirking smile, bumping his shoulder with hers.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he said, bumping her in return.

“You know,” Snow said, her eyes tracking back to Neal, always instinctively checking to make sure he was safe. “You’re different with me now.” She felt rather than saw him react.

“Different how?”

“When we first met, you very much wanted to show that you didn’t care what I thought. That you weren’t impressed by royalty. And then you got serious about Emma and started to care very much what I thought. And from then on, you were more guarded with me. Not all the time, but a lot of the time.”

He looked down at his lap and smiled. “And now?”

She nudged his shoulder with hers again. “Somewhere along the line, you’ve relaxed.”

He cleared his throat and looked up. “I cared very much what you thought, you’re right, and I assumed little of it was good. It was hard to imagine you and David would ever welcome me into your family.”

“Emma’s happiness was so important to us, especially given the way she had to grow up. Regardless of what we may have thought at the time, it was pretty clear that you were what made Emma happy.” She reached over and patted his knee. “And it’s obviously still true. I probably don’t tell you that enough, how grateful I am that you’re such a wonderful husband to my daughter.”

His adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Thank you. I’m not sure I deserve such heartfelt gratitude – I’m the one who should be grateful – but thanks all the same.”

“I asked Henry if he was starting to look at colleges the other day,” Snow said, deciding to change the subject before either of them got more emotional, “and I know it’s still a year away, but he gave me the most noncommittal answer I think I’ve ever heard from anyone about anything ever. What gives?”

“Ah, yes. That’s a difficult topic with both of his mothers at the moment.” Killian scratched behind his ear. “He’s recently posited that he may not want to go to college.”

“Henry? Not go to college?” Snow blinked a few times, her mouth hanging open for a second before she snapped it closed. “I just always assumed…”

“Aye, so did Emma. And since she didn’t go herself, she’s all the more insistent that Henry get a degree.” He sighed. “Regina feels much the same. But Henry has other ideas.”

“And what do you think he should do?” Snow asked. She’d grown used to the idea that in this realm, college was the inevitable destination for a clever student like Henry, but at the same time, she’d known many brilliant people in the Enchanted Forest who were mostly self-taught.

Killian’s eyebrows went up. “I’m trying to keep out of it, lest I be accused of butting in where my opinion isn’t wanted.”

“Emma would never say that.”

“Regina might. Her acceptance of me as Henry’s stepfather is, shall we say, grudging.”

“I don’t think that’s true anymore, but in any case, _I’d_ like to hear your opinion.”

He scratched at the wood of the bench with the tip of his hook. “I think there’s no point in forcing the boy to go to college if he isn’t motivated to go himself. One gets no more out of advanced study than one puts in. And as I understand it, he could go later in life if he chose to.”

“That’s pretty wise, Killian,” Snow said, her eyes trained on Neal as he climbed the four wide, metal stairs to get to the slide for approximately the hundredth time.

He grinned. “Well, I am known for being both pretty and wise, your grace.”

Snow rolled her eyes at the honorific, although she supposed she preferred it to the few weeks he’d after he and Emma and first married when he’d winkingly called her ‘mummy.’ “So what’s Henry thinking of doing instead?”

“Ah, well, there we get into the other reason his mothers are displeased. Henry’s been spending a lot of time up in the old sorcerer’s mansion lately, reading legends from other realms. He’s become rather attached to the idea of visiting some of them. Seeking other stories, now that his own family has their happy ending.” Killian made a face on speaking those words, as if the idea that he’d been gifted a happy ending still surprised him, even after more than two years of what appeared from Snow’s vantage point to be a blissfully happy marriage.

“He wants to cross realms? That could be dangerous.”

“Aye, that’s what Emma and Regina have been saying.”

“You disagree?”

“I don’t disagree that it could be dangerous, but he’ll be eighteen, which is considered an adult in this realm, at least in some respects.” Neal chose that moment to run over and crash into Killian’s knees, and Killian pulled the three-year-old up onto his lap without missing a beat. “If he wants to go, I believe we should support him. I understand Emma’s instinct is to want to hold him close – Regina’s too – but he has to make his own way in the world. Even if it means we’ll worry about him. We can’t hold Henry back in order to make ourselves more comfortable.”

“Come push me, Hook! Push me on the swing!” Neal said, putting a chubby hand on Killian’s face and turning it toward himself to get his brother-in-law’s attention.

Killian smiled indulgently. “All right, lad. Give me just a moment.” He set Neal back on his feet, and he tore off toward the swingset.

“You need to talk to Emma. It sounds like Henry needs you in his corner,” Snow said, standing up and pulling Killian to his feet so that they could follow Neal.

He sighed again. “Aye, I suspect you’re right.”

Neal tried to climb up into the seat of a swing, and ended up on his stomach, flopped over with his arms outstretched, slowly swinging back and forth. Snow picked him up and righted him in the seat as Killian dutifully stood behind him and gave him a gentle push once he was certain the toddler was holding on tight.

“You’re Henry’s stepfather, and you have a right to speak up,” Snow told him.

“Higher, Hook, push me higher!” Neal shouted, swinging his legs back and forth.

Killian pushed a little bit harder, giving a look with Snow that seemed to ask if he was being gentle enough. “I will, but I need to give Emma more time to adjust to the idea before I say anything in Henry’s defense.”

Snow smiled. “You know my daughter very well.”

“Aye, I’d like to think so.”

He continued pushing Neal on the swing for a few more minutes before the boy was ready to stop and leapt down to run back to the jungle gym.

“That lad has quite a lot of energy,” Killian said, watching Neal’s legs carry him quickly from place to place.

“Yeah, he’ll run around like that until he gets overtired and decides he needs to throw a tantrum.” Snow looked at her watch. “Speaking of which, I’d better take him home for his nap.”

“And I should resume my patrol,” he said, glancing up at the sun. Snow wondered if he’d ever break the habit of checking the sky to estimate the time of day rather than looking at a clock. “We’ll see you at our place for dinner on Sunday?”

“Yep.” Snow pulled him into a hug impulsively. “Our family would be much poorer without you in it, you know that?”

His arms came up hesitantly and returned her embrace. “Aye.”

“Good,” patting his shoulder as they pulled apart. “You need to know your worth. And so does Henry, even if that means seeking it in far off places.”

Killian smirked. “Maybe _you_ should talk to Emma.”

“Oh no, you’re not roping me into that drama. Grandma’s prerogative: I get to sit back and nod sympathetically.” She scooped Neal up into her arms as he tried to run past her, his feet kicking uselessly against the air. “See you later.”

With a laugh, Killian waved. “Goodbye, Mummy.”

Snow groaned. “Don’t start that again.” But she shot him a grin over he shoulder as she made her way toward her station wagon. “Bye bye, Son.”


End file.
